Yes, there must always be an ozeki. There must be an ozeki, sekiwake, and komusubi on both the east and west sides.

If there is no ozeki, the yokozuna holds the spot, and is given the title ofyokozunaozeki. In other words, as long as there is a yokozuna, the position of ozeki is covered.

The ranking chart has east and west positions for every rank. Two rikishi always have the same position, but the one on the east has the superior record from the preceding tournament.

Ranks are determined at the banzuke ranking conference held after each tournament. There must be at least two sekiwake and two komusubi, but there are no upper limits.

One tournament had five rikishi ranked as sekiwake, and there four at the Kyushu Tournament. The previous limit was thirty-eight. No more than 26 as of the Summer Tournament.

The previous limit was There are thirteen positions on both east and west sides. Some ranks contain a limited number of rikishi while others do not.

Some ranks need not be filled and some have no upper limit. All rikishi are registered with the JSA, but there is no limit to the number allowed.

Similarly they may be called to assist in welcoming a VIP, such as the Emperor , to the arena. The san'yaku can be split into two groups: The former group have special promotion criteria and higher salaries, and have additional perks such as a higher number of junior wrestlers to assist them, an entitlement to park in the Sumo Association compound and voting rights in the election for Association directors.

They are expected to represent wrestler views to the Association, assist in advertising events and meet event sponsors.

The rope is similar to the shimenawa used to mark off sacred areas in Shinto , and like the shimenawa it serves to purify and mark off its content.

As the sport's biggest stars, yokozuna are in many ways the public face of sumo and the way they conduct themselves is highly scrutinized, as it is seen as reflecting on the image of sumo as a whole.

As of January , a total of 72 sumo wrestlers have earned the rank of yokozuna. The birth of the rank of yokozuna is unclear, and there are two competing legends.

According to one, a 9th-century wrestler named Hajikami tied a shimenawa around his waist as a handicap and dared any to touch it, creating sumo as it is now known in the process.

According to the other, legendary wrestler Akashi Shiganosuke tied the shimenawa around his waist in as a sign of respect when visiting the Emperor, and was posthumously awarded the title for the first time.

These two wrestlers were both awarded yokozuna licences by the prominent Yoshida family. This privilege was more often determined by a wrestler's patron having sufficient influence rather than purely on the ability and dignity of the wrestler.

Thus there are a number of early wrestlers who were, by modern standards, yokozuna in name only. At first, the Yoshida family and a rival family, Gojo, fought for the right to award a wrestler a yokozuna licence.

The first yokozuna promoted by the Sumo Association was the 41st yokozuna Chiyonoyama Masanobu. There are no absolute criteria, nor is there a set quota: The power and skill aspects are usually considered with reference to recent tournament performance.

In the case where the "equivalent performance" criterion is used the wrestler's record over the previous three tournaments is taken into account with an expectation of at least one tournament victory and two runner-up performances, with none of the three records falling below twelve wins.

Thus a consistent high level of performance is required. Winning two tournaments with a poor performance between them is not usually sufficient.

The rules are not set in stone and hence in reaching their conclusion the Yokozuna Deliberation Council and Sumo Association can interpret the criteria more leniently or strictly and also take into account other factors, such as total number of tournament victories, the quality of the wins and whether the losses show any serious vulnerabilities.

The issue of hinkaku dignity and grace is more contentious, as it is essentially a subjective issue.

In the case of Konishiki, other issues such as his weight were also cited. For example, Chiyonoyama in the s was not immediately promoted due to his relative youth despite winning consecutive tournaments, although he later achieved the top rank.

Futahaguro eventually retired after only one and a half years at the top rank and became the only yokozuna in sumo history ever to retire without having won at least one top division championship.

Since then, the issue of whether foreigners have the necessary dignity has become a moot point as five of the eight wrestlers to achieve sumo's ultimate rank following Akebono in were not born in Japan: Elevation to yokozuna rank is a multi-stage process.

After a tournament, the Yokozuna Deliberation Council, a body of lay people that is, not former sumo wrestlers who are appointed by the Japan Sumo Association to provide an independent quality control on yokozuna promotion, meet and discuss the performance of the top-ranked wrestlers.

Their recommendation is then passed to the Judging division and then the Board of Directors of the Sumo Association who make the final decision. If a wrestler is deemed to have met the criteria then he will be visited in his training stable by a member of the Sumo Association Board of Directors who will formally give him the news.

In the following days a tsuna or ceremonial rope will then be made in his stable and he will practice the ring entrance ceremony with advice from a previous or current yokozuna.

Finally, he will have his inaugural ceremonial ring entry ceremony held at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, which is usually completed within a couple of weeks of the tournament end.

As opposed to all other sumo ranks yokozuna cannot be demoted. A yokozuna is expected to retire if he can no longer compete at the peak of the sport or in some cases if he is deemed to have not upheld the dignity of the rank.

Expectations are so high that, even in the course of one tournament, a yokozuna who early on appears to be headed for a losing tournament will feel the pressure to retire; there are many cases of yokozuna dropping out mid-tournament with a real or imagined injury to avoid a make-koshi a losing record and the expectation to retire.

These expectations are a large part of the reason that the promotion criteria for yokozuna are so strict in the first place. A brief symbolic "dance" is carried out before filing off to change into their fighting mawashi and prepare for their bouts.

A yokozuna , however, is introduced after the lower ranked wrestlers and is flanked by two other top division wrestler "assistants".

The "dewsweeper" or tsuyuharai precedes the yokozuna , while the "sword bearer" or tachimochi follows him into the arena.

The sword is a Japanese katana and symbolises the samurai status of the yokozuna. The tachimochi will always be the more highly ranked of the assisting wrestlers.

As indicated above, during the ceremony the yokozuna will wear his tsuna around his waist. The ceremonial aprons of all three form a matching set.

Once in the ring the yokozuna takes centre stage and performs a much more complex ritual dance.

The dance can take one of two forms, one of which the yokozuna usually chooses when he is first promoted.

In addition to the slightly different routine the choice of the yokozuna' s ritual can also be determined by the knot used to tie the rope around his waist: Indeed there are some scholars [ who?

This ceremony first started with the former yokozuna Tachiyama in As of January , there have been a total of 72 yokozuna , although formal record keeping only started with Tanikaze and Onogawa in This was seen for five tournaments from May to January , when three yokozuna Wakanohana , Chiyonofuji and Kitanoumi fulfilled this role at various times.

A wrestler at the rank of sekiwake will be considered for promotion if he has achieved a total of at least 33 wins over the three most recent tournaments , including ten or more wins in the tournament just completed.

Promotion is discretionary and there are no hard-and-fast rules, though a three-tournament record of 33 wins is considered a near-guarantee.

Most of these vanished from the banzuke soon after, but a few wrestlers, notably Tanikaze Kajinosuke , remained as real wrestlers.

If, on the other hand, he loses a majority of bouts while kadoban , he is relegated to sekiwake in the following tournament. No matter how badly he does, he will not fall lower than sekiwake.

This system has been in place since the Nagoya Tournament of It represents the highest rank a wrestler can achieve by continuously making a kachi-koshi a winning record in the tournament in tournaments.

Promotion to sekiwake depends on either a space being available, which is quite common, or having a record in the previous tournament that is very convincing.

Typically 11—4 or better as a komusubi is sufficient for promotion to sekiwake even with no normal space available; lower ranks need progressively more wins.

Very occasionally, however, a lucky sekiwake might keep his rank even with a 7—8 record if there are no obvious candidates to replace him, as when the komusubi and the upper maegashira have also had losing records.

In each case the wrestler was merely moved from the sekiwake East rank to the less prestigious West side.